Presidents Speak to the Children

Presidents Speak to the Children

Article excerpt

Gov. George W. Bush has borrowed the motto of the Children's
Defense Fund, "Leave no child behind." With all the current
political emphasis on children, it occurred to me to look back on
how presidents past have addressed children. This I was able to do,
thanks to Stanley and Rodelle Weintraub, whose collection of letters
of presidents to children is being published this fall under the
title "Dear Young Friend" (Stackpole Press).

The early presidents addressed children with the formality of the
time.

George Washington wrote to his nephew, George Steptoe Washington,
urging him "not only to be learned, but virtuous, clothed decently
and becoming your station." He counseled his teenage step-
granddaughter, Nelly, to be careful of her suitor. "Is he a man of
good character, a man of sense?"

Thomas Jefferson counseled his daughter, Martha, to be more
careful about her spelling.

John Quincy Adams was also concerned with style, complaining to
his son, John Adams II, of receiving three letters, "all grumbling
letters and all badly written." James Polk wrote his nephew,
Marshall, of being "mortified" at his bad conduct record at West
Point.

Abraham Lincoln introduced a more in time style of letter. His
last one, to the daughter of an innkeeper, included a verse: